We know that Amazon's rankings are notoriously inaccurate but they remain both an interesting and easily accessible measurement of ... well, we're not sure of what. But, thanks to the handy Book Tracking feature provided with a membership to Publishers Marketplace (a membership well worth the modest fee), you can follow the progress of any title that interests you. Given the widespead blog love Sam Lipsyte's Home Land has received, we were curious to see what's happening to the book. Here's what we found:
date/time | Amazon rank | BN.com rank |
Dec. 15, 2004 | 249,311 | 225,033 |
Feb. 04, 2005 | 1,160 | 10,632 |
Feb. 07, 2005 | 1,763 | 11,122 |
Feb. 10, 2005 | 799 | 11,829 |
Feb. 15, 2005 at 7:11 a.m. | 239 | 368 |
Feb. 15, 2005 at 4:00 p.m. | 300 | 882 |
Current: Feb. 17, 2005 at 12:45 a.m. ** | 324 | 777 |
Now, we'd like to say that it's blog attention that has muscled Home Land up the charts, but it's true that it's also gotten a fair amount of mainstream coverage, including a review from that pesky NYT, smack in the middle of our blog cycle, thus skewing our numbers. (But since the review was written by a blogger of note, we can still claim it for our own.)
What's all this in aid of? What does it really prove? Who knows. It's late, we're tired. And there are leg warmer pictures to download. But we'd be willing to bet that any number of books mentioned in the same issue of the Times aren't posting the same numbers. Mostly, though, we're just following this with interest and wishing Sam luck.
** C'mon, admit it, isn't this an awfully cool feature? And it's yours for just a couple of bucks a month. We're not making a dime here, we just think this is pretty nifty stuff.
The book was also Morning Sedition's first reader's club pick, and they featured Sam Lipsyte on the air, so that probably helped a bit, too.
Make sure you do your research! Didn't they teach you anything at journalism school or that college newspaper you worked on?
(I'm one of Mark's oldest friends, so I reserve the right to talk to him in this manner.)
Posted by: Gabe Carras | February 17, 2005 at 06:07 AM
Leg warmer pictures? Goddam, Mark, what does it take to convince you that you CAN'T be Jennifer Beals?
Posted by: Ed | February 17, 2005 at 01:37 PM
It's wonderful to this confirmed with data, even if of the ultra-sketchy Amazon rankings kind. Blogs are definitely informing and influencing the literary conversation for the better and helping savvy authors to run circles around traditional publicity campaigns. And, not to knock PM, but you know, you can get similar info from www.junglescan.com for free...
Posted by: Lauren Cerand | February 22, 2005 at 09:35 PM